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As an award winning blogger, David Butler helps others explore the world of craft beer in Northern Colorado. Fermentedly Challenged helps you find great places to enjoy a beer, listen to music, enjoy a meal and find a discount on your next pint. Follow along on social media - @ChipperDave on Twitter and on Facebook.

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Today is Constitution Day. It was back on this day in 1787 that the US Constitution was signed and ratified by 39 brave men. This act would help change the course of history. This day is also referred to as Citizenship Day and is an American federal observance day, however it is not a holiday for federal employees. Go out and celebrate your Citizenship today. If you celebrate with a craft beer today - give a toast to the good ol' USA. Here's what's happening around the Colorado beerosphere today Wednesday, September 17th, 2014. If you aren't reading this article on FermentedlyChallenged.com, you don't know what you're missing.

The Brew Night Show with Marty Jones (Denver) - Here's one pre-GABF event you won't want to miss coming to Lannie's Clocktower Cabaret on Wednesday, October 1st at 8pm. It's America's first and most entertaining beer-focused talk and variety show. In addition to the beery humor and music from Marty Jones, the night features interviews with beer-industry leaders including Charlie Papazian, brewlesque performers, and a one-night-only list of exceptional beers from Green Flash, Odell Brewing, Crazy Mountain Brewing, wasatch, Squatters and Dude's Brews. Marty's backing band, The Brewbadours, will serve as the house band for the evening. Tickets are $20 and are available at www.lannies.com. The ticket price includes a free year’s subscription to Draft Magazine and other beery perks. Doors open at 7pm, the show begins at 8pm. A post-show party begins at approximately 9:30pm and includes more beer-minded music from Jones, and songs from beer-industry parody group the Rolling Boil Blues Band, led by Celebrator Beer News publisher Tom Dalldorf. After party admission is just $5 at the door. [Lannie's Clocktower Cabaret: 16th St & Arapahoe, Denver, CO]

Vine Street Pub & Brewery (Denver) - This Saturday, September 20th at 1pm is their favorite day of the year. Join in at the Vine Street Pub & Brewery for a fun and FREE event, featuring the Fourth-Annual Brewer's Olympics, six hours of all-star live music and a beer garden filled with amazing offerings from 12 of the best breweries on the Front Range. The Brewer's Olympics start at 1pm followed immediately by the Award Ceremony. Competing Breweries this year include: Mountain Sun, Avery, Boulder Beer, Prost Brewing, Jagged Mountain, River North, Breckenridge, Wynkoop, Upslope, Great Divide, Oskar Blues, and Renegade. This Year's Events: Tricycle Relay Race, Bicep Bust, Brewer's Obstacle Course, and the Yeast-Filled Balloon Pitch. Live music to follow. [1700 Vine Street, Denver, CO] Sponsored ad from City Star Brewing - Berthoud, CO.

Bull & Bush Brewery (Denver) - Beer Fans! Today they issued a bottle-only beer release of a Whiskey Barrel-Aged Ice Cream Clone Stout. It's their 2nd installment in their 435-part series, better known as the Colorado Barrel Collective. Stop by and pick up some bottles for your own collection. Also available at select local stores. [4700 E Cherry Creek South Dr, Denver, CO]

Breckenridge Brewery (Littleton) - [PRESS RELEASE] Early last year, Breckenridge Brewery announced the plans for its new 85,000 sq. ft., $35 Million brewery and Farmhouse restaurant, located on a 12-acre country spread along the South Platte River in Littleton, CO. Construction on the new world-class brewery commenced last fall, and now those plans are taking shape. A crane dropped in the last of sixteen towering 400 bbl. fermentation tanks and four 400 bbl. brite tanks. The currently visible steel beams that lay the map for what this new brewery will look like, will soon be covered with rustic barn-style walls and roofing. The 100 bbl. Steineker brewhouse will be installed later this month, and just after the New Year all packaging equipment will arrive.

The Farmhouse, Breckenridge Brewery’s new restaurant and tasting room, is slated to open in April of 2015. The commissioning of the new brewhouse is scheduled for mid-May, 2015. Operations will move entirely to the Littleton site by June. Breckenridge Brewery will open the doors to the new brewery with an initial capacity of 150,000 bbl./year, and that will be expandable to about 300,000 bbl./year before needing to build any additional structures. The brewery, ranked the 40th largest U.S. Craft Brewery in 2013, has posted higher than 20% growth for the past four years. The new production facility will allow Breckenridge Brewery to continue this growth in a sustainable manner.

Currently, the Denver brewery is at maximum capacity, operating 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, just to meet demand.
Features of the new brewery will lead to new, unique business endeavors. A 2,000 sq. ft. barrel cellar room will pave the way for an expanded barrel-aged program. Two acres of the 12-acre plot of land will be a dedicated hop field, which will allow Breckenridge Brewery to produce new fresh-hopped varieties. Additionally, there will be an organic vegetable garden, which the Farmhouse restaurant will utilize for a true farm-to-table dining experience.

Located near the Mineral Station RTD Light Rail stop at Aspen Grove, and right off of the Platte River Trail, which sees over 2 million bikers every year, the new Littleton brewery and Farmhouse restaurant will be extremely accessible to people located in Denver and surrounding areas. Breckenridge Brewery hopes to help expand the beer tourism movement that has been steadily growing along the front range of Colorado. The new Breckenridge Brewery campus will become a Colorado destination. The Farmhouse restaurant seats 300 people inside and offers plenty of additional lounging in the expansive outdoor beer garden. Brewery tours of the entire grounds and operations will take place daily. The brewery will host special events throughout the year, including its annual Hootenanny, the brewery’s anniversary celebration. Next year the brewery turns 25, and plans are already in place for the Hootenanny that will occur at the new Farmhouse Brewery on Saturday, July 11th, 2015.

De Steeg Brewing (Denver) - New brew this week - a Spicy Blonde ale! It's described as crisp, clean and refreshing. Perfect for warm September days like today. Stats: 6.5% ABV. [4342 Tennyson St, Denver, CO]

Kokopelli Beer Co (Westminster) - Ladies Night is TONIGHT! Starting at 6 stop by for buy one get one drink half off and live music by Dave Connelly until 9. [8931 Harlan St, Westminster, CO]

Boulder County

Front Range Brewing (Lafayette) - Today's small batch brew is a Grisette. Stop in for a taste. And in other news, sometimes the smallest change to a beer recipe gets a lot of notice and feedback. Their blog post today stated that they recently made a small change to their regular IPA recipe and got several comments from regulars that the beer was good but just wasn't the same as the original IPA. It's kinda like the "New Coke" issue from years back. If you change a beloved recipe - people WILL notice! So in response to their regular fans, they will be brewing another batch of the original recipe IPA and have it up in the next couple of weeks. [400 W South Boulder Rd, Ste 1650, Lafayette, CO]

Avery Brewing Co (Boulder) - They picked gorgeous hop flowers, tossed them straight into the kettle, brewed two very different beers, and just put them ON TAP! Stop in now to try: Chinook Wet Hop Pale - their 4th annual brew featuring fresh hops from Niwot Hop Farm. They used 100# of Chinooks in this 20 bbl brew, along with a tad of Honey malt. And also try - Nugget Wet Hop Amber - the first batch ever featuring only wet hops, all of which were grown at Hire Wire Hop Farm in Paonia, CO. They used 150# of Nuggets in this 25 bbl brew, which also features Cara-45, Melanoidin, Caraaroma, and Dark Aromatic malts. [5763 Arapahoe Ave, Boulder, CO]

Northern Colorado

Zwei Brüder Brewing (Ft. Collins) - The Zwei Brüder Brewers are busy working their magic to bring you a delicious Märzenbier. Their Märzen will be tapped this Saturday, September 20th at noon. The tapping will kick off their Oktoberfest celebration! Neue Polka Colorado from CSU will be providing the celebration with awesome live tunes! [4612 S Mason St, Ft. Collins, CO]

Verboten Brewing (Loveland) - In 3 days time (aka Saturday) Verboten Brewing will be debuting Half a Million, their pumpkin porter. Stats: 5% ABV, 24 IBU's. This pumpkin beer will be poured through a pumpkin firkin straight into your glass! That's right a real pumpkin firkin at 2:00pm. Don't miss it! Also catch them at the Loveland Oktoberfest on Saturday 11am-5pm at Thunder Mountain Amphitheater in Loveland. [1550 Taurus Ct, Loveland, CO]

City Star Brewing (Berthoud) - Along with their award winning beers on tap, City Star will have the Oskar Blues CHUBurger Bonewagon on site grilling up tasty burgers and such. Stay for Trivia starting at 7:30pm. [321 Mountain Ave, Berthoud, CO]

Southern Front Range

Great Storm Brewing (Colorado Springs) - Stop in this Saturday for their Oktoberfest celebration. One of the beers you can try is their Blue Spruce Juice. It's made with hand-picked Colorado-grown Blue Spruce tips. It's a dark, but sessionable beer at 5% ABV. Buzzwordz Trivia is tonight and is free to play and you can win beer, swag and other goodies. [204 Mount View Ln, Ste 3, Colo. Springs, CO]

Red Leg Brewing Co (Colorado Springs) - Get up and over the hump by hanging out in the taproom enjoying some of their limited release Fresh Hop Pale Ale, and some delicious grub from Bite Me Gourmet Sausage. This evening in particular you will not only be supporting your local brewery and food truck, but from 6-8pm they will be donating $1 from every pint to the Mountain Post Historical Association. Drinking delicious beer never felt so good! Happy Hour with a cause! [4630 Forge Rd, Ste B, Colo. Springs, CO]

BierWerks Brewery (Woodland Park) - BierWerks has 20 barrels (620 gallons) of Oktoberfestbier this year! This batch of BierWerks Oktoberfest was brewed July 30th and 31st and has been lagering patiently waiting for this weekend. It will be released Friday evening - September 19th. [121 E Midland Ave, Woodland Park, CO]

Mountains and West

Pagosa Brewing Co (Pagosa Springs) - Tomorrow, September 18th at 7:00am, yes AM - they will be hosting a hop picking party including breakfast, beer and bloody marys on the house for helping out. It'll be hopalicious fun. Wear your long sleeves because those hop bines can bite! [118 N Pagosa Blvd, Pagosa Springs, CO]
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